|
|
Desert Bayou |
|
|
|
Headline: Master P. Produces Provocative Post-Katrina Documentary
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the mainstream media
flooded the airwaves with reports about how the displaced residents of the
Gulf Region were being welcomed with open arms by fellow Americans all
across the country. One of those feelgood stories involved Utah, where some
600 evacuees from New Orleans were supposedly being integrated into the
mostly-Mormon Salt Lake
City community.
Now, thanks to Desert Bayou, directed by Alex LeMay, we’re belatedly
learning the rest of the story, and the sad truth is that this contingent of
refugees were treated horribly upon their arrival. First of all, they had
been herded onto a plane without being informed of their destination.
Upon landing, they were not ushered to a functioning metropolis but to Camp
Williams, an abandoned National Guard base in the desert used only as an
artillery range. As for the closest city, Salt Lake is 45 minutes away, and
the mayor there hastily announced the imposition of a nightly curfew on the
recent arrivals, this to ensure that all these new African-American citizens
would be out of his lily-white town after sundown.
It’s important to remember that according to pro-slavery
founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints Joseph Smith, black skin was a
sign of being cursed, which explains why one of the religion’s tenets
forbade the baptizing of blacks. Needless to say, the move to the
Mormon-dominated region proved to be rather problematic for most of those
airlifted there, and that unfortunate nightmare is painstakingly recounted
in Desert Bayou.
The picture was produced by hip-hop impresario Master P, a New
Orleans native whose own parents were among the Katrina victims taken to
Utah without their consent or any understanding of what they were getting
into. Lucky for them, their son had the money to fly to Salt Lake to rescue
them from racist treatment reminiscent of the country’s dark days of Jim
Crow segregation.
A damning documentary which exposes FEMA’s wholesale failings while
depicting a nation still deep in denial and willing to look the other way
despite the ongoing suffering of a long-marginalized segment of society.
Unrated
Running time: 90 minutes
Studio: Cinema Libre Studio
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|